LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen voted to accept Town Manager Martin Puckett’s resignation, effective Sept. 26, with regret Monday night. He has accepted a town manager position in northern Maine.

Selectmen also voted to start the ball rolling with Maine Municipal Association to find a replacement for Puckett.

“This has been a wonderful experience for me,” Puckett said. “I’ve learned a lot about team work.”

Puckett said he was proud of the town and the improvements that have come by working together.

His new position, which he was unable to make public due to it not being announced in that town, will allow him to be with his wife, who is six months pregnant with their baby girl, he said. The two have been living apart for work and schooling reasons and have been commuting on weekends to see each other.

Puckett became the town manager in January 2006.

“I think Martin has done an awful lot to move the town forward,” Chairwoman Louise Chabot said.

In other business, selectmen voted to set the tax rate at $18.80 per $1,000 of property valuation, down from $20.30 per $1,000 of valuation last year. But they also voted to increase real estate property valuations by 9 percent on everything from land and buildings to mobile homes, to meet the state’s 100 percent certification requirements.

Owners of a house valued at $100,000 last year paid $2,030 in taxes. That same house will now be valued at $109,000 and the tax bill will be $2,049.20, not calculating in the Homestead Exemption.

The new tax rate will give the town $90,000 in overlay, which selectmen hope to be a cushion to lower the tax commitment next year, when the state only reimburses 90 percent of personal property equipment instead of 100 percent as they did this year.

Chabot said with increased fuel bills and everything else people are facing, they should not put too much additional burden on taxpayers.

At a past meeting, Van Tuinen said the valuation may have to be increased by up to 15 percent to meet the state’s certification requirements.